Hearing this, Hazel Sinclair let out a breath of relief.
He was just asking what she wanted to eat.
“You’re coming back to cook for me?” Hazel Sinclair asked, her face stern.
Leon Sterling nodded, his own face just as stern.
Hazel Sinclair immediately sat bolt upright, letting her shameless side show.
“Come back?
Why would you come back?
Can’t you just order me takeout?”
“Insisting on coming back to cook for me…
Are you even going to make any money?
Are you trying to slack off?
You don’t want to support me anymore, is that it?”
Hazel Sinclair’s mouth ran a mile a minute, not giving Leon Sterling a chance to get a word in.
“I knew it!
You must be tired of me!”
“Leon Sterling, I only ended up like this because of you!”
Leon Sterling held his phone, listening to her ramble on.
Only after Hazel Sinclair had finished her tirade did he slowly speak.
“Eating takeout every day isn’t healthy.”
Hazel Sinclair immediately shot back, “So?
I can cook for myself!
I don’t care, you have to go make money!”
“How am I supposed to buy all the cute bags I want if you don’t make money?”
Leon Sterling was about to say she didn’t have to cook, that he would, but when he saw Hazel Sinclair’s big, round eyes, the words caught in his throat.
“Do you even know how?”
‘Who doesn’t know how to cook?
Any broke person learns to buy their own groceries and cook to save money.’
‘Thanks to her past life, of course Hazel Sinclair knew how.’
‘But the original owner of this body couldn’t cook.
With her personality, she would never have set foot in a kitchen.
She was used to being served hand and foot and had absolutely no common sense.’
“Can’t I just follow a recipe online?”
An impatient expression crossed Hazel Sinclair’s face.
“Okay, that’s enough.
Stop bothering me.
If you don’t bring that cake home for me tonight, you can sleep under the bed.”
With that, she ended the video call.
Hazel Sinclair flopped back onto the sofa and went back to scrolling through videos of hot guys.
Her thumb tapped the screen again and again, sending a constant stream of pink hearts floating across the display.
‘Damn, the way this guy sways his hips is so hot.’
‘Now *that’s* what I like to see.’
‘Saved to the ‘Imperial Harem’ collection.
I shall bestow upon him the title of ‘Consort Hottie’!’
Watching her, the System thought that if it were a person, its eyes would have rolled all the way back into its skull.
“How about you go seduce a rich heir?” the System asked cautiously.
“No way.”
Hazel Sinclair rejected the idea without a second thought.
“You want me to go seduce some old geezer?
System, you’re heartless.”
“Forcing a young maiden in the prime of her life to throw herself at an old man…
Where’s your morality?
Do you have no shame?”
The System closed its metaphorical eyes.
‘The original host was exactly this type of person, with no morals and no shame.’
“Host, please do not go out of character.”
Hazel Sinclair spotted a new hottie on her feed and ignored the System completely.
Leon Sterling was doing gig work for three different delivery platforms.
To help him earn more money, Hazel Sinclair had even let him use her ID to sign up for another account.
The insulated box on the front of his scooter was packed with food, and even the hooks on the handlebars were laden with bubble tea orders.
While waiting at a red light, a red Porsche pulled up beside him.
The driver lowered the window and looked over at Leon Sterling.
“Well, if it isn’t Veridia’s famous up-and-comer.
What happened?
You delivering takeout now?” a man with dyed-blond hair sneered from inside the car.
Leon Sterling spared him a single glance before calmly looking away.
The man was momentarily stunned by his reaction.
“Leon Sterling, do you have any idea who I am?
I could crush you like an ant!
How dare you treat me like that?” Blondie flew into a rage, pointing and shouting at Leon.
“You’re bankrupt!
What gives you the right to be so arrogant?
You’d better get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness, or I’ll make you regret it!”
Just then, the light turned green.
Leon Sterling twisted the throttle and sped off.
In a flash, Leon Sterling was already across the intersection.
Blondie watched him go, absolutely seething.
‘He used to be so high and mighty, looking down his nose at me.
Now his own best friend has bought out his company and he has nothing!
What right does he have to be so arrogant?!’
“HONK!
HONK!
HONK!”
The cars behind him laid on their horns.
Someone even stuck their head out the window to yell.
“Are you blind?!
Didn’t you see the light turn green?
You think the whole road is your personal parking garage?”
“Get a move on!”
Cursed at from all sides, Blondie had no choice but to step on the gas and go.
By the time Blondie arrived at his friend’s villa, he was stewing in a foul mood.
“Mr.
Hawthorne, what’s wrong?” one of his friends asked, seeing him sitting on the sofa, drinking sullenly.
“Fuck!
That bastard Leon Sterling is bankrupt, but he’s still so damn arrogant.
It’s pissing me the hell off,” Warren Hawthorne cursed, slamming his glass down on the coffee table.
‘Leon Sterling?’
‘He’s not even in our circle anymore.
How did he manage to piss off Mr.
Hawthorne?’
“What happened?” another man, this one with purple hair, asked.
“I saw him on the road.
I tried to talk to him, and he just ignored me!” Warren Hawthorne said resentfully.
“This isn’t over.
I’m going to make him understand the price for offending me.”
Just then, the purple-haired man spoke up.
“He’s not divorced yet, you know.
And his wife is gorgeous.”
Thinking of Hazel Sinclair’s beautiful face, the purple-haired man subconsciously licked his lips, already scheming how he could lure her out for some ‘fun’.
He’d seen her from a distance at a banquet one day, and the image of Hazel Sinclair in a black, form-fitting dress had been seared into his mind ever since.
He hadn’t dared to make a move back then because she was Leon Sterling’s wife.
But now that Leon was bankrupt…
well, the three of them would be more than happy to ‘take her in’.
“If his wife were to cheat on him,” the purple-haired man said slowly, a calculating look in his eyes as he watched Warren Hawthorne, “don’t you think a man as proud as him would find that utterly humiliating?”
Warren Hawthorne considered it and a grin spread across his face.
‘That’s right.
He wants to be arrogant?
He wants to ignore me?’
‘When the time comes, I’ll make Leon Sterling kneel and beg for mercy.’
“Alright,” Warren Hawthorne nodded.
“Let’s do it.
We’ll make him a cuckold.”
DING!
A notification chimed.
Hazel Sinclair, who was in the middle of cooking some noodles, pulled out her phone.
She opened her messaging app and saw a new friend request.
She tapped on it and saw it was from someone she didn’t recognize.
“Accept it!
Accept it!” The System grew frantic with excitement the moment it saw the name attached to the request.
‘I can’t believe he came to us!’
‘This is totally unexpected!’
Hazel Sinclair, who had been about to accept, immediately grew suspicious.
“This is a trap, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely not,” the System swore.
‘Can’t trust a word the System says.’ Without another thought, Hazel Sinclair hit ‘Decline’.
The System was dumbfounded.
And in the villa, three men were also dumbfounded.
‘She declined?’
“Dammit!” Warren Hawthorne was even more furious now.
‘I’m the second young master of the Hawthorne Family!
And this couple has pissed me off to no end today!’
“Some brilliant idea you had!
She rejected it,” Warren Hawthorne snapped, pinning all the blame on the purple-haired man.
“Don’t bother me with your stupid plans from now on!”
The purple-haired man quickly tried to smooth things over.
“Mr.
Hawthorne, she probably just doesn’t know who you are.”
“But I’m the second young master of the Hawthorne Family—” Warren Hawthorne only grew more incensed at his words.
Hearing this, the other two couldn’t help but scoff internally.
‘That’s why nobody recognizes you.’